Cooking With Wine Beer and Alcohol

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Bacon is too strong for anything but a condiment or last-minute add (I can do without). Of course, a mild level of heat is required for Texas Chowdah. So mince some pod in with whatever you sweat/saute.

I make a mean oyster stew. The canned oystahs make be cooked, but I still saute them with butter and celery seed before adding the milk (and maybe cream). Just don't overcook! Rubber oysters only work in cheap po-boys.

Gots oyster crackers?


(Dammit. I want some. Do you ship to foreign parts?)

I'm with you on the bacon.
And I forgot the darn oyster crackers.

[Father'sDaughter]

Unless you want us New Englanders on your back, you better stop and at least get yourself some salt pork if you'd rather not use bacon!

[AlittleSalt]

I've been waiting for this. To me, Clam Chowder is white - it has no corn or tomatoes in it. It is not Manhattan style. Crackers are overrated but accepted... sort of.

Yes, I love clam chowder. It is one of my favorite soups.

[Cole_Robbie]

http://www.newenglandhistoricalsocie...r-war-of-1939/

[dmforcier]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

http://www.newenglandhistoricalsocie...r-war-of-1939/

Oh, such an innocent looking link.

A tomato-hating politician from Rockland set off the Maine clam chowder war of 1939 when he prepared a bill to make it a crime to pollute clam chowder with tomato.

If found guilty, offenders would be sentenced to digging up a barrel of clams at high tide – which, as any clammer will tell you, is not only cruel and unusual punishment, but impossible.

[Old chef]

I cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food
W.C.Fields

I'll second that! Do I hear a third??

Old Chef

[dmforcier]

Originally Posted by Old chef

I cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food
W.C.Fields

I'll second that! Do I hear a third??

Does anyone remember Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet?

[oakley]

Originally Posted by dmforcier

Does anyone remember Graham Kerr, The Galloping Gourmet?

He was popular when i was a kid. I was too young to realize he was trashed. He just reminded me of funny Uncle Barney. Definitely more wine in him than the food!

[Old chef]

Originally Posted by oakley

He was popular when i was a kid. I was too young to realize he was trashed. He just reminded me of funny Uncle Barney. Definitely more wine in him than the food!

Sure of course. My first cooking shows when I was young. He would take a "slosh". Him and the wife Trini would travel and come back with recipes

Old chef

[bower]

Originally Posted by Old chef

I cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food
W.C.Fields

I'll second that! Do I hear a third??

Old Chef

Aye aye Capn, we have a third here!
A little wine will clear my palette and allow me to think savory thoughts while I cook.
It is not a regular item in my food budget, but the first treat to appear whenever the budget elasticity permits.

I love to cook with wine and after our discussion on Cheap Eaten I read up some 'real' recipes for Coq au Vin and Beef Bourgignon. One C au V recipe recommended chicken thighs, and a eureka moment for my next bulk cooking as I have gotten very tired of curry just now. I decided to omit bacon but splurged on a pack of button mushrooms (it's been a long time!) as well as a cheapest available red - $11 on special, a Hardy's cab-shiraz, to deal with the lurking pack of thighs in my freezer.. I also had a small pack of stewing beef lurking there, so made a little pot on the side of stovetop version Beef B.

What I noticed about these recipes (presumably authentic and french) is that they differ from the mediterranean style of similar dishes (picked up in Catalunya) by a couple of things. (1) using flour to thicken the sauce (2) addition of butter and bacon. ok I did omit both butter and bacon. and (3) they use onions and shallots but no garlic Of course I added garlic. and (4) maybe just me/my own style of cooking, but it seemed that there were extra steps and dishes involved to first cook meats a bit, then remove it and cook onions/mushrooms, then make a proper sauce with roux, and finally combine it all and cook to finish. I decided to follow the steps as given. to see if it was worth it.

Well the meats were both super tender and tasty as is always the case with wine. What is interesting, the button mushrooms being fried with the usual alliums, bay leaf and thyme in the pan that meat was seared in, before deglazing with wine, the mushrooms really took up the meat flavors instead of tasting of garlic-bay-thyme-wine. In fact the herbs took a back seat entirely in the flavor department. Admittedly, these mushrooms were quite delicious in their own right.

But I am still stuck on the Catalan style mushrooms, as an ultimate flavor. Just saute them in olive oil with lots of garlic, a bay leaf and thyme, then add plenty of red wine and gently simmer to perfection. Also the simple method which I've done many times with beef in a large pot, to sear the beef along with the alliums/bay/thyme in olive oil and then just add mushrooms into it, saute all a few minutes more with a bit of extra garlic grated on the rasp, then add wine and simmer, makes a very respectable stew.

Coq au vin definitely got a thumbs up for bulk cooking of those ever-on-special chicken thighs though. And happy to have some meals of it stashed away in the freezer.

[AlittleSalt]

lol you two.

Wouldn't it be nice to dig up clams in our locations.

[Worth1]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

lol you two.

Wouldn't it be nice to dig up clams in our locations.

Salt we have fresh water mussels.
One time my brother another guy and my wife woke up on the bank of lake Travis.
They were starving and forgot to get food.
I got out in the shallows of the lake and dug up some big mussels and cooked them on a fire and washed them down with a swallow of whisky at sun up.
Everyone including other people on the shore were horrified.
Look at that guy what on earth is he eating?
My brother just exclaimed dam Marines and took the boat to go get food.

Worth

[AlittleSalt]

Old chef, point me in the right way. I looked at the wine isle and I couldn't find Boones Farm.

[Keiththibodeaux]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Old chef, point me in the right way. I looked at the wine isle and I couldn't find Boones Farm.

MD 20-20 will do.

[matereater]

I say yes to the bacon, just dont overdo it